Uber Rape Case Draws Life Sentence February 12, 2016

On the day a Delhi court sentenced a former Uber cab driver to life in jail for raping a 25-year-old passenger in his car last December, the victim’s father expressed satisfaction at the verdict and disclosed that his daughter has “moved on” — she is now married and settled abroad with a new job.

The victim got married around a month ago to her fiance to whom she had got engaged prior to the rape, the father confirmed. “The ceremony was a very small affair. Apart from us and the groom’s parents, only very close relatives on both sides attended… only 12 of us were present. We are happy that our daughter is fine now. She has moved on and is settled in her new life,” the father said.
The woman had also secured a job abroad and recently flew out with her husband, the father said. “They have just shifted to their new house and are trying to get used to the new life and environment. I am going to meet her soon,” he said.
On Tuesday, an additional sessions judge handed 33-year-old Shiv Kumar Yadav the “maximum sentence” after he was found guilty of rape, kidnapping and criminal intimidation of the woman under new laws that cover the offence.
The victim’s father said that the family does not talk about the incident at all these days.
“We do not want to be reminded about what happened. We do not want our daughter or her in-laws to remember at any point of time in their lives that something like this had ever taken place. We just want to forget this incident now. That is why we have consciously decided to never ever discuss this incident again,” the father said.
Asked about the sentence handed down to Yadav, the Life term for Uber rape accused, victim’s father says she’s moved on with marriage, new job abroad father said: “I am very happy with the decision. This verdict will serve as a deterrent for all others like him. We even got a few calls from New York to know our views about the verdict. It shows that this decision has made an impact even there. This is justice.”
Speaking to The Indian Express a few days after the incident last year, the victim had revealed that she was so traumatised that she faced “difficulty in sleeping”, saw “strange dreams” and felt “an urge to leave India” where she no longer felt “safe and comfortable”.
The incident was reported on the night of December 5, 2014, when the executive with an international firm in Gurgaon was heading back to her house at Inderlok in northwest Delhi in an Uber cab.
According to police, the accused allegedly took the victim, who had fallen asleep in the car, to an isolated spot and raped her. The woman convinced him to drop her back home promising that she would not reveal the incident to anyone, police said. Later, she alerted police and informed her parents following which Yadav was caught.